Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Described in the First Decade of the Unified Hawaiian Islands

1810 marked the unification of the Hawaiian Islands under single rule when negotiations between King Kaumuali‘i of Kauai and Kamehameha I at Pākākā took place.  Kaumuali‘i ceded Kauai and Ni‘ihau to Kamehameha and the Hawaiian Islands were unified under a single leader.  There was peace in the Islands.

On the American and European continents, war was waging.  Twenty-nine years after the end of the American Revolution, conflict between the new US and Britain flared up, again – it lasted until 1815.

A lasting legacy of the War of 1812 was the lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the US national anthem. They were penned by the amateur poet Francis Scott Key after he watched American forces withstand the British siege of Fort McHenry, Baltimore (named for James McHenry, Secretary of War, 1796 – 1800.)

In Europe, in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of France.  In 1815, as part of ongoing series of conflicts and wars in Europe, African and the Middle East, Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo (in what is now present-day Belgium.)

Back on the American continent, later in the decade (1818,) the US and Canada came to an agreement on their common boundary and used the 49th parallel to mark their border.  The next year, Spain ceded Florida to the US.

In the Islands, Kamehameha I, who had been living at Waikiki, moved his Royal Residence to Pākākā at Honolulu Harbor in 1809.

That year, Archibald Campbell described the Honolulu surroundings:  “Upon landing I was much struck with the beauty and fertility of the country … The village of Hanaroora (Honolulu,) which consisted of several hundred houses, is well shaded with large cocoa-nut trees.”

“The king’s residence, built close upon the shore, and surrounded by a palisade upon the land side, was distinguished by the British colours and a battery of sixteen carriage guns …”

“This palace consisted merely of a range of huts, viz. the king’s eating-house, a store, powder magazine, and guard-house, with a few huts for the attendants, all constructed after the fashion of the country.”

Kamehameha’s immediate court consisted of high-ranking chiefs and their retainers.  Those who contributed to the welfare and enjoyment of court members also lived here, from fishermen and warriors to foreigners and chiefs of lesser rank.

Today, the site is generally at the open space now called Walker Park at the corner of Queen and Fort streets (there is a canon from the old fort there) – (ʻEwa side of the former Amfac Center, now the Topa Financial Plaza, near the fountain.)

ʻEwa side of Pākākā (where Nuʻuanu Stream empties into the harbor) was the area known as Kapuʻukolo.  This is “where white men and such dwelt.”  Of the approximate sixty white residents on O‘ahu at the time, nearly all lived in the village, and many were in the service of the king.

Among those who lived here were Don Francisco de Paula Marin, the Spaniard who greatly expanded horticulture in Hawaiʻi, and Isaac Davis (Welch,) friend and co-advisor with John Young (British) to Kamehameha.

Campbell noted, “(Isaac Davis’) house was distinguished from those of the natives only by the addition of a shed in front to keep off the sun; within, it was spread with mats, but had no furniture, except two benches to sit upon. He lived very much like the natives, and had acquired such a taste for poe (poi,) that he preferred it to any other food.”

In those days, this area was not called Honolulu.  The old name for what is now the heart of downtown Honolulu was said to be Kou, a district roughly encompassing the present day area from Nuʻuanu to Alakea Streets and from Hotel to Queen Streets.

Honolulu Harbor, also known as Kuloloia, was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794.  He named the harbor “Fair Haven.”  The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

A large yam field (what is now much of the core of downtown Honolulu – what is now bounded by King, Nuʻuanu, Beretania and Alakea Streets) was planted to provide visiting ships with an easily-stored food supply for their voyages (supplying ships with food and water was a growing part of the Islands’ economy.)

A couple years later, John Whitman noted in his journal (1813-1815,) “… Honoruru is the most fertile district on the Island. It extends about two miles from the Harbour where it is divided into two valleys by a ridge of high land. The district is highly cultivated and abounds in all the productions of these Islands.”

“The village consists of a number of huts of different sizes scattered along the front of the Harbour without regularity and the natives have lost much of the generous hospitality and simplicity that characterize those situated more remotely from this busy scene.”

Whitman goes on to note, “… everything necessary for the subsistence and comfort of man is found in the (Nuʻuanu) valley, watered by a rivulet it produces the best taro in great abundance, the ridge dividing the taro patches are covered with sugar cane.”

“The high ground yields sweet potatoes and yams and all the other productions of the Island are found in the various situations and soils adapted to their nature.”

In 1816-1817, Otto Von Kotzebue in command of a Russian exploratory expedition spent three weeks in the “Sandwich Islands.”  He gave a description of the loʻi kalo in the Nuʻuanu area:

“The valley of Nuanu (Nuʻuanu,) behind Hanarura (Honolulu,) is the most extensive and pleasant of all. … The cultivation of the valleys behind Hanarura is remarkable.  Artificial ponds support, even on the mountains, the taro plantations, which are at the same time fish-ponds; and all kinds of useful plants are cultivated on the intervening dams.”

In 1818, Peter Corney, who resided on O‘ahu as a representative of the Northwest Company and engaged in the sandalwood and other trade, noted:

“The Island of Woahoo (Oʻahu) is by far the most important of the group of the Sandwich Island, chiefly on account of its excellent harbours and good water. It is in a high state of cultivation; and abounds with cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, horses, etc., as well as vegetables and fruit of every description.”

“The ships in those seas generally touch at Ohwhyhee, and get permission from Tameameah (Kamehameha,) before they can go into the harbor of Woahoo.”

“He sends a confidential man on board to look after the vessel, and keep the natives from stealing; and, previous to entering the harbor of Honorora (Honolulu), they must pay eighty dollars harbor duty, and twelve dollars to John Harbottle, the pilot…”

“The village consists of about 300 houses regularly built, those of the chiefs being larger and fenced in. Each family must have three houses, one to sleep in, one for the men to eat in, and one for the women, – the sexes not being allowed to eat together.”

“Cocoanut, bread-fruit, and castor-oil-nut (kukui) trees, form delicious shades, between the village and a range of mountains which runs along the island in a NW and SE direction.” (Corney)

Jacques Arago, who visited Hawai‘i in 1819 with Captain Louis Claude de Saulses de Freycinet on the French ships L’Uranie and L’Physicienne, described some of the daily activities:


“At sunrise, men, women, and children quit their dwellings; some betake themselves to fishing (chiefly the women) on the rocks, or near the shore; others to the making of mats …”

“… the rest offer their little productions to, or solicit employment from, strangers, in exchange for European articles; while the masters of families repair to the public square, to witness or participate in amusements, of which they are astonishingly fond…”

The first decade of the Islands under single rule ended with the death of Kamehameha.  Prior to his death (May 8, 1819,) Kamehameha decreed that that his son, Liholiho, would succeed him in power; he also decreed that his nephew, Kekuaokalani, have control of the war god Kūkaʻilimoku.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Alexander Young Hotel

Alexander Young was born in Blackburn, Scotland, December 14, 1833, the son of Robert and Agnes Young. His father was a contractor. When young, he apprenticed in a mechanical engineering and machinist department.

One of his first jobs included sailing around the Horn in 1860 to Vancouver Island with a shipload of machinery and a contract to build and operate a large sawmill at Alberni.

He left Vancouver Island for the distant “Sandwich Islands,” arriving in Honolulu February 5, 1865; he then formed a partnership with William Lidgate to operate a foundry and machine shop at Hilo, Hawaiʻi, continuing in this business for four years.

Moving to Honolulu, Young bought the interest of Thomas Hughes in the Honolulu Iron Works and continued in this business for 32 years. On his retirement from the iron works he invested in sugar plantation enterprises. He became president of the Waiakea Mill Co.

During the monarchy he served in the House of Nobles, 1889, was a member of the advisory council under the provisional Government and was a Minister of the Interior in President Dole’s cabinet.

With the new century he started a new career, when in 1900 he started construction of the Alexander Young Hotel, fronting Bishop Street and extending the full block between King and Hotel streets in downtown Honolulu.  The 192-room building was completed in 1903.

In 1905, Young acquired the Moana Hotel and later the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (the ‘old’ Royal Hawaiian in downtown Honolulu that was later (1917) purchased for the Army and Navy YMCA.)

The Honolulu businessman whose downtown hotel that bore his name helped him became known as the father of the hotel industry in Hawaiʻi.

“Mr. Young has sought the best money could buy, with the single purpose of attaining the beauty, comfort and convenience which modern architecture can supply, modern thought suggest and modern man can require.” (Evening Bulletin, August 3, 1900)

Extending a block in length and rising six stories in height, the Alexander Young Building was the largest edifice in Honolulu. It dominated the city-scape and was a major landmark in the downtown area.

At the time of its construction it was the foremost hotel in the Pacific and one of the major hotels in America.

The Advertiser noted, “San Francisco with its 400,000 people, has only one caravansary as good and is priding itself on the prospect of one more. Across the bay Oakland, with 100,000 people, has nothing to compare with it; and going East through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas and so on to the western limits of Chicago, no hotel of equal cost and splendor can be found.”

“Between Chicago and Honolulu is a distance of 4,000 miles and a population of over thirty million people, yet but one hotel can be found in all that region which equals in size, modern fittings, and general attractiveness the hotel which bears the name Alexander Young.” (Honolulu Advertiser 1903)

It was four stories in height, six at the two ends, and built of grey granite; there was a roof garden tent where refreshments were served and concerts given.  At either end of this roof garden is a dance pavilion.  (The only major addition to the building was the fifth story placed on the roof garden in 1955.)

The Young Hotel was used by the military in both World Wars. During WW I, the US Army used the second floor. During WW II, the military occupied most of the hotel.   Other notable occupants of the hotel include the 1929 legislature, which maintained its offices there while ʻIolani Palace was refurbished.

In 1964, the hotel was converted to stores and offices.  The landmark (on the National Register of Historic Places) Alexander Young Building was demolished in 1981.

At about the same time, Young formed the von Hamm-Young Company with his son-in-law, Conrad Carl von Hamm and others (an automobile sales, textiles, wholesale sales, machinery and a host of other businesses, and forerunner of The Hawaiʻi Corporation.)  He also started Young Laundry.

Alexander Young died July 2, 1910.  (I have no known genealogical relation to him.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Animal Drawn Streetcars

In the quarter century from 1872 to 1896 the population just about doubled in the kingdom from 57,000 to 109,000; Honolulu doubled from 15,000 to 30,000.

The increase of the population of Honolulu was taken care of in two ways: (1) more people crowded into Chinatown (the area between Fort Street and Nuʻuanu stream makai (seaward) of Beretania Street and (2) area of settlement was pushed outward and “downtown” enlarged.  (Kuykendall)

This extension of settlement combined with the growing attraction and popular resort use in Waikīkī meant transportation became more of a problem.

People who could afford them had horses and buggies; independent buggy served as available on a limited basis and mass production of the gas automobiles didn’t get underway until the turn of the century, so a more organized public transportation system was needed.

The earliest public transit was the Pioneer Omnibus Line, with a horse-pulled vehicle serving parts of Honolulu for a few years beginning in the spring of 1868.  (Schmitt)

In 1884, the legislature passed a law “granting to William R. Austin and his associates the right to construct and operate a street railroad upon certain streets of the city of Honolulu.” Later amended, the law granted authority the Hawaiian Tramways Company, Limited (from England.)  (Kuykendall)

An April 14 1888 London public offering prospectus to raise £130,000 by selling 26,000 shares at £5 each noted, “The following are the routes of the proposed lines of Tramway, viz.;

(1) From Nuuanu Street, the chief residential quarter, through the business part of the City skirting the Docks and Custom House, to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, and thence along Beretania Street, touching the extensive Portuguese quarter, to a point where at several closely populated Avenues converge.

(2) Starting from the densely-populated Chinese quarter, past the King’s Palace, the Legislative Chambers, the Opera House, and the Native Church, to the principal pleasure resorts and residential district of the well to-do classes in the southern suburbs.

The total length of the above lines, including sidings and crossings will be about 12 miles.”

On May 19, 1888, ground was broken and track laying started for a street railway system.  On New Year’s Day 1889, a mule or horse-drawn tram along King Street between Pālama and Pawaʻa became the first streetcar in Honolulu with four open cars, bringing what was later described as “Honolulu’s first real transit service.”  (Schmitt)

The Pacific Commercial Advertiser grumbled that it was “a very unsatisfactory service for the public, however, as hundreds waited at the corners for the belated cars …. The company should have had double the cars on the line that it had.”  (Kuykendall)

The tramcars were well patronized, first as a novelty and then as a proven convenience. The speed limit for the cars was eight miles per hour. By July 1889, the trams speeded along King Street from Kalihi to Waikīkī, Beretania from Nuʻuanu to Punahou.

The streetcar tracks added to the traffic problem on Honolulu’s main streets, none of which were wide enough. As far back as 1880, a newspaper article gave an entertaining description of traffic conditions then existing.

“The traffic in ours streets has increased five-fold within the last three or four years, but the streets are no wider than before. It therefore behooves the police to keep a sharp lookout. …”

“In all great cities which we have visited, it is held to be a most important function of the police, to render locomotion as easy and safe as possible, by forbidding unnecessary stoppages, keeping drivers on their own side of the street, seeing that no heavy drays or wagons are allowed to move unless the drivers have sufficient control over their beast.”  (Kuykendall)

The animal-powered service was short-lived, making its last run on December 23, 1903; Hawaiian Tramways, Ltd. was taken over in 1900 by the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co.

Honolulu Rapid Transit operated electrically powered buses on Honolulu streets.  Power came from overhead wires. Ten new buses began service on August 31, 1901, replacing the horse and mule drawn cars which had in service 33 horse cars, 113 horses and 194 mules.

Eventually more comfortable, speedy gasoline-powered buses replaced other means of mass transit for Honolulu and rural Oʻahu.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kakaʻako Pumping Station

The word “Sewer” is derived from the term “seaward” in Old English, as in ditches and ravines slightly sloped to run waste water from land to sea.

From an 1857 story in the Commercial Pacific Advertiser it appears that the first sewer facility to be constructed on Oʻahu was a storm drain located at Queen Street at the foot of Kaʻahumanu Street opposite Pier 11.  (ASCE)

Despite three outbreaks of smallpox, a typhus epidemic and two cholera epidemics between 1853 and 1895, no other serious actions were taken to improve conditions.

Honolulu was a growing city and needed a better way of disposing its wastewater.

At that time, the city had grown to approximately 30,000-people, and it was estimated that about 1.8-million gallons of sewage was being disposed of in the City septic systems daily.  This was much more than septic tank excavators could keep up with – which caused sanitation and odor concerns.

In 1897, Rudolph Hering, a New York Sanitary Engineer, was hired to prepare specifications for a Honolulu sewerage system, pumping station and ocean outfall (Hering had previously designed the New York and other large city sewage systems.)

Hering recommended a “separate system” whereby separate networks of conduits would carry sewage and storm waters, a system still used today in Honolulu.

Work on the system began in 1899 and sewer lines were laid out in a gravity flow pattern in a rectangular fashion and ran along Alapaʻi, River and South Streets, past Thomas Square, and ended in the Punahou area.

The system was extended to the remaining portion of what was then considered to be “town,” between Liliha on the ʻEwa side, Artesian Street, beyond Punahou to Judd Street, and including the Kewalo District.

The expansion was later delayed, due to a lack of funding. Much of the extension work thereafter was performed by property owners who were furnished piping and sewer components by the government.

The collection lines terminated at a main reservoir (the underground reservoir was dubbed the Hering Reservoir) at the low point at the intersection of Keawe Street and Ala Moana Boulevard in Kakaʻako.  (Darnell)  The sewage would then be pumped out to sea.

In addition, OG Traphagen (designer of the Moana Hotel) was hired to design the steam-powered sewer pumping station at this low spot.

The cost was tremendous for the construction of the lines, and construction was stopped several times due to lack of funding. The sewer outfall to the ocean was built in 1899. The outfall ran some 3,800-feet out to sea at a depth of 40-feet of water, rather than farther out to a 100-foot depth (again, due to funding constraints.)  (Darnell)

In 1900, the Kakaʻako Pumping Station was constructed; with features such as large arched windows, exterior walls of local lava rock, roofs of green tile and a smokestack 76-feet tall.

The architectural style is Industrial Romanesque with the walls constructed of locally-cut bluestone and concrete with plaster finished interior walls.

The first sewer system connections (to the Department of Health building on Punchbowl and Queen Streets, and to the Post Office building on Bethel and Merchant) were completed in 1900. This was followed by the slow conversion of other properties from cesspools to sewers.

Two additions were built to support the Pumping Station facility. In 1925, an additional “Pump” building of brick to house a high-speed, electric powered pump was added and the original plant was turned into a machine shop, storeroom and office. In 1939 a second “New” Pump House was constructed on the southwestern side of the existing structures.

The use of the Kakaʻako Pumping Station was abandoned by the City and County of Honolulu when it built a new pumping station on the southwest portion of the block, adjacent to the Historic Ala Moana Pumping Station in 1955.

Now under the jurisdiction of the Hawaiʻi Community Development Authority, it is restored by the nonprofit Hawaiʻi Architectural Foundation.

Today, the interior of the 1900 Pumping Station does not contain any historic equipment or utilities.  (Lots of information here from HCDA, HHF, ASCE and Darnell.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Halekoa

Halekoa was a part of the ambitious building program undertaken by the Hawaiian monarchy in the 1860s and ‘70s. The buildings which remain today, besides Halekoa, are Aliiolani Hale (the judiciary building), the Royal Mausoleum, the old post office at the corner of Merchant and Bethel Streets, and Iolani Palace.

The site occupied by the barracks is doubly interesting, for it first accommodated the Chiefs’ Children’s School, which was begun in 1839 by Mr. and Mrs. A. S. Cooke, and which was moved in 1851 to the lower slopes of Punchbowl.

Theodore C. Heuck, a Honolulu merchant and gifted amateur architect from Germany, submitted his original plans on March 14, 1866, to John O. Dominis, then Governor of Oahu. The sketches provided for a structure with a frontage of 70 feet and a depth of 80 feet, built around a 30×40-foot open central court.

This was early in the reign of Kamehameha V. Years passed. Finally, early in 1870, the project began to move, although slowly. The post office was being built at the same time, and a shortage of proper workmen delayed both jobs.

Halekoa did not appear in the appropriations bills passed by the various legislatures. It was financed by the War Department as a part of military expenses, an cash as needed was deposited with the banking firm of Bishop and Company.

Foundations were being laid in May, 1870. J. G. Osborne was the builder. Participating suppliers included, among others, such well-known Honolulu houses as E. O. Hall and Son, Dowsett and Co., AS Cleghorn, Lewers and Dickson (predecessors of Lewers and Cooke, the Honolulu Iron Works, JT Waterhouse, H. Hackfeld and Co. (American Factors, AmFac) and Oahu Prison.

Halekoa was made of the ever-useful coral blocks hewn from the Honolulu reef. As often happened, many blocks were cannibalized from other structures, rather than chopped from the reef.

Most of the second-hand building blocks came from the wall fronting the old post office, and from the old printing office. But the reef had to yield up its treasures, too, and Marshal WC Parke received credit for 204 man-days of prison labor, at fifty cents a day, for the hauling of blocks therefrom.

By mid-February, 1871, both the barracks and the post office were nearing completion. Finishing touches on the former, however, required several more months.

An exotic example of this, among the accounts to be found today in the Archives of Hawaii, is a bill dated May 20, levying a charge of $12.50 for painting spittoons.

Even before it was completed, Halekoa was rushed into service. At the end of February a considerable number of soldiers were sick, and the new barracks was requisitioned as an infirmary.

Originally it was some 48 feet long. The size of the inner court was increased to approximately 34×54 feet, also. The side galleries were built longer than Heuck at first specified, because of the lengthening of the court, and about two feet narrower, because of the widening of the court, making them 18 feet rather than 20 feet in width.

Iolani Barracks displays a service record almost as complicated as its building alterations. The barracks was made originally to house the regular standing army of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the small force known in the early 1870s and before as the Household Troops.

Their function was to guard the palace, the prison, and the treasury, and to appear at various parades and ceremonies.

In September, 1873, the Household Troops mutinied. They barricaded themselves in Halekoa. After the mutiny the troops were disbanded, then later reorganized, and under one title or another they continued to occupy Halekoa throughout the remaining period of the monarchy.

Liliuokalani’s Household Guards, Captain Samuel Nowlein commanding, surrendered to the revolutionary Provisional Government about five o’clock on the afternoon of January 18, 1893.

The Guards were paid off and disbanded; the Provisional Government took over munitions stored in the barracks and at once occupied the building with a strong force. This government and the succeeding Republic of Hawaii used Halekoa to house their military.

After Hawaii was annexed to the US, President McKinley issued an executive order (December 19, 1899) transferring the barracks and the barracks lot to the control of the US War Department.

Thereupon, Halekoa was occupied by the Quartermaster Corps of the US Army and used for office and warehouse space. Quartermaster use continued until late in 1917, when the Corps moved out.

At that time the War Department planned to preserve Halekoa as a historic structure. For the first time in its long and colorful history, the old barracks ceased to be a station for soldiers.

In the summer of 1920 an elaborate remodeling job was in progress and it then served as a service club, with a dormitory added on the Waikiki side for visiting service personnel. The service club phase lasted about a decade.

November, 1929, found Governor Lawrence Judd trying to get President Hoover to issue an executive order returning the barracks to the Territory. The Hawaii National Guard wanted Halekoa for its headquarters.

Judd was successful, and the transfer took place officially on March 16, 1931. But the Hawaii National Guard did not benefit from it. Instead the barracks became the offices of the supervising school principals for Honolulu and Rural Oahu.

World War II came, and the Guard continued to use the aging barracks. Midway in that war (October, 1943) an imaginative postwar plan for Halekoa was announced. It was to become a military museum. Interested civic groups and individuals pledged to participate in planning and financing the project.

But the plans never materialized. The pressure for office space doomed Halekoa to a series of repairs, renovations, and remodelings as various government agencies succeeded one another in their occupancy of the barracks.

In November, 1960, Halekoa was embarrassed to find itself encumbering the site of a proposed multi-million-dollar state capitol. Although regarded in some quarters as an antiquarian nuisance, the barracks managed to cling to existence as officials delayed their decision regarding its disposition.

The above is taken from Richard Greer’s article on Halekoa in the October 1962 Hawaii Historical Review. It was written before Halekoa was relocated to make way for the State Capitol.

Click the link for Greer full article in the Hawaii Historical Review:
https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Halekoa-HHR-Revival-Greer.pdf

Here is the rest of the story …

Following Statehood, there were plans for the State’s new capitol building being considered. Architect John Carl Warnecke, son of a German-born father, was influential in the design and construction of the new capitol. (Warnecke also designed John F Kennedy’s grave site at Arlington National Cemetery, and lots of other things.)

Halekoa was in the way; the Barracks was condemned and, in 1962, abandoned. In 1964-65, to make room for the new capitol building, the coral shell of the old building was removed to a corner of the ʻIolani Palace grounds for eventual reconstruction.

This was accomplished by breaking out large sections of the walls. Then stone masons chipped out the original coral blocks and re-set them. Many were so badly deteriorated that they were unstable.

However, the stone in the ʻEwa wing (an addition to the original Barracks) was salvageable (they left that part out of the reconstruction, but used the material from it.) Today’s reconstruction bears only a general resemblance to the original structure. (NPS)

Several other older buildings in the area, including the large vaulted-roofed Armory and the remnant of the older Central Union Church on Beretania Street, facing the Queen’s former residence at Washington Place, were also demolished to make way for the capitol building.

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